Blog Feed

The scene we decided to transform was the “Impenetrable Shield” scene from Marvel's The Avengers (2012) It Provided the perfect setup that could translate well into a Western Movie Scene. It has a mexican standoff between the villain (Loki) and the protagonist (Tony Stark) where Loki has a weapon that is a danger to Tony. For our scene we transformed the environment into a Wild West town, the characters into cowboy versions of themselves, and Loki’s Scepter into a magical shotgun.

Our scene opens up with a long shot of the characters in a staredown, smack dab in the middle of a dry, saturated environment. The ground is sand, the sky is orange and black and all the building use hot colors to demonstrate the warmth of the environment.

The second shot is a eye level close up shot of our villain, with the orange sky behind him to keep the dry theme going.  Loki's outfit is a western take on his Asgardian robe from the film. Rather than a low shot looking up at the characters like the original film, we followed the Western trope and brought the camera to his face, showing his emotion clearly.

The third shot cuts to Tony’s face, in the same eye level close us style as the previous shot. Tony is wearing a western inspired poncho with the colors of his Iron Man armor. His facial expressions express the cockiness of his character that he carries with him in all his interactions.

As their staredown continues, our fourth shot is from over the shoulder of Tony. He looks as Loki approaches him with the Scepter. The colors continue to be dry and saturated as a tumbleweed is blowing past in the distance.  

A typical western includes a drunk protagonist. Tony is just that, opting to threaten his opponent while he takes a sip of some alcohol. This over the shoulder shot looking at Tony taking a big gulp of his beverage demonstrate that he is a laid back yet gutsy and reckless hero that relates more to the audience that a know it all, all righteous hero.

As a typical western would have, the “draw your weapon” scene. The sixth shot is a medium long shot of Loki in action, drawing his scepter at Tony. The town building is in the background to keep the audience in the town to keep the environment small but sufficient in this scene. Similar to how the movie takes place with New York in the background but inside of Tony’s penthouse.

The seventh shot is an extreme close up of Loki’s scepter failing to fire. In an intense moment the misfire is a relief to both the protagonist and the audience.

The final frame medium shot of the scene shows Tony looking down at the Scepter pointed at his chest. His attitude provies humor in a time of chaos and concern, making the protagonist even more of a crowd favorite, and lightening the mood of the intensity.

The existing content the movie provided some pre existing western movie tropes. Taking those and going full on western creates a new take on the genre that we are proud to show off.

For this project, we decided to convert Notting Hill into a thriller film. Notting Hill (1999) is a romantic drama by Roger Michell, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. According to IMDb, Notting Hill tells the story of “The life of a simple bookshop owner [who] changes when he meets the most famous film star in the world.”

Like most genres, thrillers have a signature style. Thrillers are identified by the “thrills” a viewer feels and they often overlap with Horror and Science Fiction genres. Thrillers focus on action since they’re more defined by their plot. They excite their audiences by being fast-paced, having frequent location changes, and by being laced with tension and suspense.

In our version of Notting Hill, we will incorporate elements of thrillers and adjust cinematographic and theatrical components to transform this classic film. Our main take is that Anna is an obsessive stalker and William is her victim.

The components that we are keeping the same will be framing. We will continue to use two-shots, shot-reverse-shots, and eye level angles to keep a section of the characters’ conversation relaxed and natural.

The minor shifts we will change to convert this film will be the camera angles and acting choices. Throughout the scene, low angles will be used for shots of Anna and high angles will be for William. A low angle shot is a result of the camera being placed below Anna with the lens pointing up. This causes Anna to appear large and menacing, a dangerous stalker. A high angle shot happens when the camera is placed above William with the lens pointing down. This makes William appear small and vulnerable, allowing the audience to be scared for him.

The change in action choices will also be minor. Anna will smile widely more often, a freakish action. She will also move slowly (recognized by the sound of her footsteps to be addressed later) which will paint her as a monster. William, on the other hand, is casual at first, making the audience relaxed and unaware. When Anna’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic and violent, then he freaks out.

Our major shifts to Notting Hill will be camera movement, lighting, sound, costumes, and props. Our main change in camera movement will be a dolly zoom onto Anna’s face while William is waiting for her response to his rejection.  This dolly zoom is achieved by zooming the camera’s lens while the camera dollies (moves) forward Anna’s face. This effect distorts the audience’s perception of the shot since the background appears to change size. This distorting will make Anna creepier, therefore thrilling the audience with the possibility of violence.

For lighting, we will include flickering and darker lighting, to add a sense of foreboding. The flickering lighting will be used with Anna in the frame, adding to the idea that she is unnatural and monstrous.

In terms of sound, we will have diegetic noises (sounds made by objects in the story and heard by the characters) and non-diegetic music (sound effects added for dramatic effect). As mentioned earlier, the diegetic sound of Anna’s slow and careful footsteps will be pronounced, making the audience think that she’s creeping around. We will add non-diegetic music (creepy strings) that are a typical horror/thriller element and will explicitly paint Anna as nightmarish.

The costume changes will dress Anna in a fiery red dress and William in simple blue pants. This contrast of color temperatures will foreshadow their character - Anna being hot-tempered and William being cool.

Finally, a prop will be added to our conversion of this scene. Throughout this thriller version of Notting Hill, the audience has been waiting to see if Anna’s concerning actions will lead to violence. When she pulls out a knife, the audience is as scared as William is and completes Anna’s career as a villain.

Eli Block

The first shot is of Josh waking up to his mom’s voice. She yells “Josh wake up!” in a motherly way. The camera is zoomed in on Josh’s face as he wakes up and his eyes open the camera zooms out. It appears as if nothing is wrong in that moment but it is clear to the audience that his life is not as it once was. As the camera zooms out you can see Josh is covered in blankets, the room is dull, grey covers the walls. You can see that it is still dark outside. The movie is very playful and full of colors so the dark colors create an immediate difference. The slow camera movement builds suspense.

The second shot is of Josh walking to the bathroom. You can see him walking at the second floor of the house while his mom is cooking below. The suspense continues to build. There is non-diegetic music playing, it is very ominous sounding which helps build suspense. Along with the music you hear the creaking of the floor signifying a lot of weight is being put on it and the comforting sounds of Josh’s mom cooking.  The sounds are incredibly important in this shot as it gives a homey feeling while showing not everything is okay. The camera does not move and shows both floors of the house.

The third shot shows Josh looking at himself in the mirror. The shot is an over the shoulder shot and shows Josh looking at himself. He begins to freak out. The camera then pans to Josh’s room where his mom is folding clothes. To her everything seems fine while the audience knows what happened to Josh. The camera then pans again to Josh trying to figure out what happened to himself. He clears his eyes and shakes his head. There is diegetic sound of all the actions happening.

The fourth shot is the most suspenseful. You see Josh cautiously leave the bathroom however he is clearly unaware of his mom in his room. The camera is at eye level and follows Josh as he slowly moves closer and closer to his room. The floorboards creak with each step. Then Josh’s mom shouts “Josh are you okay?” Josh’s face quickly changes, he looks mortified. He responds “yes mom” as he runs back to the bathroom. He closes the door and begins hyperventilating behind the closed door. The camera continues to stay at eye level while following Josh’s face.

The fifth and final shot is of Josh frantically collecting his things. The camera movement follows Josh’s and as he begins to trip and fall while getting his things together the camera shakes with him. The non-diegetic sound gets louder and faster. The suspense builds and it seems like something big is going to happen. At this point the room is bright. There is a big difference from the first slow moving dull shot and the fast moving bright shot that is happening now. As Josh attempts to put on his clothes he realizes he fits none of what he owns. Yet again we here Josh’s mom ask to make sure he is okay and this time there is more fear in his voice when he responds.

Spike Lee is without a doubt one of the most well known black directors in film. His works commonly deal with issues of race, with the protagonist always being a person of color. The movie Shrek on the other hand is a comical film with the protagonist being an ogre, however when the film is thoroughly analyzed one can see slight factors that when amplified could make it a Spike Lee film, the main factor being that the main character is hated by a white town and attacked, for being physically different. For these reasons when tasked with re-visioning a film in the eyes of a new director, Shrek and Spike Lee seemed like automatic fits.

For the re-creation to be successful the focus on Shrek being “colored”(green) would have to be amplified in this case and those attacking him would be remain white as they are in the film. This is shown in the storyboard by Shrek being quite literally the only colored character. The arms and legs of those in the mob are all white and colorless. Since Spike Lee is also known for limiting the information the audience has about those that aren't the main character, in the storyboard the only face shown is that of Shrek. The mob attacking him is represented solely by their footsteps and weapons, as those are the only things that add importance to them in Shrek’s life. Furthermore there would be the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds to represent the two different moods in the storyboard. When the mob is on the screen there is no background music, instead the rumbling of their feet, weapons, and the combined shouts of their voices will create the sounds that represent them. Shrek on the other hand will have an upbeat song playing in the background during his time on the screen, to symbolise the peace and tranquillity he is experiencing. The camera will rarely be still, as common for Spike Lee films, with it shakingly following the mob via dolly while gentle and smoothly following Shrek in his house cooking and eating. All this will be occuring in New York since all Spike Lee films occur in urban settings. Shrek’s house will be located at the bottom of a tree in a park to further solidify he is an outcast from this white society. The storyboard ends with the weapons belonging to the mob moving closer onto Shrek slowly, since Spike Lee commonly uses background music even in slow parts of his film there will be a sad song letting the audience know that Shrek is now at the mercy of the mob. Originally this scene takes place in the beginning of the movie and in this case it will as well, this will allow it to set the mood for the film and show the racial tension in the setting of the film.

Spike Lee is without a doubt one of the most well known black directors in film. His works commonly deal with issues of race, with the protagonist always being a person of color. The movie Shrek on the other hand is a comical film with the protagonist being an ogre, however when the film is thoroughly analyzed one can see slight factors that when amplified could make it a Spike Lee film, the main factor being that the main character is hated by a white town and attacked, for being physically different. For these reasons when tasked with re-visioning a film in the eyes of a new director, Shrek and Spike Lee seemed like automatic fits.

For the re-creation to be successful the focus on Shrek being “colored”(green) would have to be amplified in this case and those attacking him would be remain white as they are in the film. This is shown in the storyboard by Shrek being quite literally the only colored character. The arms and legs of those in the mob are all white and colorless. Since Spike Lee is also known for limiting the information the audience has about those that aren't the main character, in the storyboard the only face shown is that of Shrek. The mob attacking him is represented solely by their footsteps and weapons, as those are the only things that add importance to them in Shrek’s life. Furthermore there would be the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds to represent the two different moods in the storyboard. When the mob is on the screen there is no background music, instead the rumbling of their feet, weapons, and the combined shouts of their voices will create the sounds that represent them. Shrek on the other hand will have an upbeat song playing in the background during his time on the screen, to symbolise the peace and tranquillity he is experiencing. The camera will rarely be still, as common for Spike Lee films, with it shakingly following the mob via dolly while gentle and smoothly following Shrek in his house cooking and eating. All this will be occuring in New York since all Spike Lee films occur in urban settings. Shrek’s house will be located at the bottom of a tree in a park to further solidify he is an outcast from this white society. The storyboard ends with the weapons belonging to the mob moving closer onto Shrek slowly, since Spike Lee commonly uses background music even in slow parts of his film there will be a sad song letting the audience know that Shrek is now at the mercy of the mob. Originally this scene takes place in the beginning of the movie and in this case it will as well, this will allow it to set the mood for the film and show the racial tension in the setting of the film.

We started with one of our favorite romantic comedies, Bridesmaids, and decided to change the genre to the style of Wes Anderson’s directing. The scene we chose was during one of the main character’s bridal shower where they begin by sitting and watching Lillian open her presents. From here, the scene escalates because her best friend, Annie, can no longer hold in her anger about Helen, another bridesmaid, trying to steal Lillian from her. This scene is done well by the setting, props, facial expressions, tone, and pace. Wes Anderson has a very different style of comedy, so there were many areas we were able to change.

Firstly, we researched Anderson’s style which involves scenes that are filmed using a wide shot and they are also always symmetrical which plays to his aesthetics. Our redone scenes were from a distance to make it more of a wide shot, and we kept the people centered and mostly symmetrical while filming at eye level, another tool he uses. Anderson is also known for higher saturated scenes, so we used backgrounds that were bright and high in color. In one section, we have a bright blue background to demonstrate how Anderson uses such bright, pastel coloring. We also filmed in front of windows to get a natural and bright lighting, again similar to his directing style.

I have invested this past year in learning and writing about a controversial topic in America. I chose to explore transphobia.  If you are unaware of what that is, it is “intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people.” In my first essay Transphobia in America I wrote about the percentages of mistreatment and unequal treatment against transgender individuals. In my second essay Change Is Still Needed I interviewed two people, a transgender male and a doctor at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) who educated transgender people on safe sex. I then explored the murder rate of transgender people.

Since my last article there hasn’t been any activism for transgender persons rights, but that doesn’t mean the fight is over. Although there has been no activism, there has been more deaths since my last essay (March 18th 2018). Only days later on March 26th 2018, Amia Tyrae Berryman was shot to death at the Shades Motel in Baton Rouge, LA at the age of 28. Sasha wall, 29 years old, was found shot to death in her vehicle in Chesterfield County, S.C on April 1st. Carla Patricia Flores, 18 years old, found strangled to death in her home in Dallas, Texas on May 9th. ALL transgender women of COLOR. The rate that transgender women are murdered is one of the highest in the country. Nino Fortson, 36 years old, transgender man found shot to death in Atlanta May 13th. These are just a few reported cases. Many are not even recorded.

Since there has been no activism fighting or educating anyone about the transgender people, I decided to go out and do it myself. Tuesday, March 6th I was on a panel in the Mutter Museum hosted by CHOP. I was accompanied by my mother and four other transgender males. We answered questions to feed their curiosity and to educate. Here is the panel I was on, fast forward to 1:11:00 if you want to see the panel part. I answered questions about my life and my visits at the hospital. I decided to go about my activism this way because I am offered to do things like this all the time, of course I accept. So I figured I can use these opportunities to educate.

Throughout my year of doing this project I learned more about myself and community. My community is at danger and nothing has been done about it. No acknowledgment from law enforcement, no help just “thoughts” and “prayers.” Those are nice, but they don’t help the people in need. I learned more about myself than ever, I need to start being more open minded and exploring topics that I usually don’t. It is up to my generation and I to right the wrongs everyone has made.

For the film conversion benchmark, we were tasked with remodeling a scene of a movie into a different genre or through the style of a different auteur. The purpose of this being to test our knowledge of cinematic and theatrical elements, and how they play a crucial role in deciding the kind of film that is created. My partner Siani and I focused on the 2012 blockbuster Hunger Games. The film centers on a young woman, Katniss, in postmodern North America, as she participates in an annual event entitled “The Hunger Games” which calls for teenagers to fight to the death until only one survives.

Written as a dystopian novel, and produced as a science fiction and fantasy film, we aimed to take the core aspects of danger and the will to survive and adjusted them into a new setting. With the usage of cinematic and theatrical elements, we adapted the film into a western. The scene we focused on, common titled, “Career Pack chase Katniss” shows the main character Katniss being hunted down by a group of fellow participants in the games. In order to make transform this scene into that of a western, we needed to employ and highlight the various techniques that are commonly found in westerns, techniques that would give the scene the smooth yet intense style of westerns.

Beginning with the cinematic elements, framing is one that played a critical role in capturing feeling. Often in western films, employs close ups to capture the emotion and facial expression of the character as well as to highlight important aspects. Similarly we used many close up shots on our characters faces along with their weapons to show the importance of feeling in the person and of their object, in this case their guns which were very much so apart of them. Long shots, which are used to show the character entire body, usually from a distance, were employed in instances where multiple characters were in the scene so that the audience could see everything that was happening in the scene. Medium shots, which shot from the waist up, were used in many of the scenes to show the characters while also keeping some of the background in view of the reader. Two angles were used in our storyboard. High angles, which are when a character is filmed from above, was implemented during scenes where the Career Pack chased Katniss, to emphasize the danger that she was in. The second being eye level, so that the audience could look at Katniss directly and see the emotion that she is trying to relay. In most western movements, dolly/tracking is used. This is to show the movement in the scene. We used this form of camera movement and included a few slow shots to build up tension as the scene goes along.

In the form of editing, we used two types, eyeline match and cut. A cut edit is when two shots are pieced together to make the illusion of an instantaneous shot. This was evident in scenes of action/confrontation where dialogue, bullets, and the overall action was taken place from different areas of the set. Eyeline match is a technique used to allow the audience to see what the characters are seeing. We used this, during dialogue between the characters to make them reader feel they are in the scene.

When it comes to sound, many westerns are absent of outside music, instead opting for diegetic sound which is sound that originates in the scenes of the movie. In westerns these are often things like the wind, footsteps, bullet sounds, cactus rolling etc. We used diegetic sound to emphasize the sound of the weapons and to catch things that would match the environment. Lastly, rounding out the cinematic features is lighting. In terms of lighting, we aimed to remain true to the time that a western would have taken place. This means natural light in the outside scenes, and dimmer in the indoors.

While cinematic elements are important to a movie’s conception, theatrical elements are just as necessary. First off, one of the most important aspects of a film is the set. This is where the movie takes place and ultimately provides a backing to the film. The particular scene in was taken from the arena, which showed a forest of sorts. Western’s usually take place on the American Frontier, so we made that the new set for our scene.

Like set, costumes also play an important role in distinguishing a film as a western. You will often find things such as cowboy hats, boots, vest, loosely based clothing in warm or earth tones. Instead of the modern clothes as seen in the movie, our characters wore cowboy hats and boots to make it clear they are in a western. In the Hunger Games, weapons such as arrows and knives were the main props utilized throughout the movie. To make it fit the time period, we traded in the arrows for guns, as big portion of westerns are the epic shootout scenes. Acting choices can set the tone of a movie, as it is the characters that the audience is following. We wanted to keep the same tone for the modified clip from the original as it the choices made emphasize the desire of fighting to stay alive. Overall, a lot of things go into creating any specific type of movie. These are the ways in which we were able to transform the Hunger Games into a traditional western movie.

For our final film project, Kara and I decided to take on a classic, “The Wiz”, and create a horrific rendition of the original plot through a storyboard trailer. To do this, we had to incorporate things that are mainly seen in movies under the horror genre. This meant finding parts of the movie that had a lot of bottom angles, eerie non-diegetic sound and scenes that either foreshadowed or included the main characters encountering danger. This was a challenge considering the original nature of the movie, but knew that there were still sustainable parts that would be effective when put together. The majority of the movie uses high key lighting, colorful setting and upbeat non-diegetic sound. We were able to take the scenes that embodied darkness with the menacing costumes, emphasizing the horror in Dorothy and her friends’ faces while connecting it to the harrowing causes. Camera angles and techniques that are commonly used in horror movies include the birds eye/high angle shot, which makes the subject seem small and vulnerable, Close ups to display the emotion and capture detail, tracking shots during chases, a handheld camera shot and point of view shot to give insight to what the character is experiencing. We found a lot of these techniques in the scenes we chose, even before doing more research on what was commonly used in the genre. Depending on the character, There will be more of one technique used than the other. For main characters such as Dorothy and Evilene, there were many close-up and eye level shots, or establishing shots when they would change setting.

A major thing that we focused on in terms of zoom was the scenes of wear the lion is hanging, scarecrow is being attacked, and Dorothy is in the hurricane. When zoomed in on these scenes, it gives suspense and excites the crowd on what might happen next. This was included with darker lighting to exaggerate the whole idea of it being a horror film since darker lighting represents fear and suspense. The costumes do not change, only because we are directly using scenes from the movie, and it would serve no purpose to have the characters in different costumes otherwise the audience wouldn’t be able to identify the characters. We chose to use the main characters who were featured throughout the scenes to alter what is actually happening. The majority of the scenes are bad things happening to each of the characters and pulling just those images make it look scary when you just highlight the bad parts. The flashbacks are used through long shots that give the audience a feel of the surrounding and sound throughout each of the scenes. Lastly, the title was made with blood dripping off of it to illustrate the fact that it’s a horror movie. We didn’t really want to alter the title, because the scenes that are drawn actually happened. So instead we had blood drip off the letters to give a darker feel.